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*[http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/personality/lindsey-seavert/ Lindsey Seavert] - general assignment reporter
*[http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/personality/lindsey-seavert/ Lindsey Seavert] - general assignment reporter
*[http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/personality/rachel-slavik/ Rachel Slavik] - general assignment reporter
*[http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/personality/rachel-slavik/ Rachel Slavik] - general assignment reporter
*[http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/personality/jamie-yuccas/ Jamie Yuccas] - general assignment reporter
*[http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/personality/holly-wagner/ Holly Wagner] - morning and noon reporter
*[http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/personality/holly-wagner/ Holly Wagner] - morning and noon reporter


Revision as of 03:42, 29 June 2011

{{Infobox broadcast}} may refer to:

{{Template disambiguation}} should never be transcluded in the main namespace.

WCCO-TV, is the CBS owned and operated television station that serves the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota. It broadcasts a digital television signal on channel 32 . It also operates two full-powered satellites - KCCO-TV in Alexandria (channel 7) and KCCW-TV in Walker (channel 12). The station's studios are in downtown Minneapolis, while its transmitter is at the Telefarm complex in Shoreview, Minnesota.

From 1947 to 1996, WCCO-TV and WCCO-AM won twelve George Foster Peabody Awards, more than any other Twin Cities broadcast outlet.

Unlike most other CBS owned-and-operated stations, WCCO does not follow the CBS Mandate in its branding, using simply its call letters rather than "CBS 4". However, in June 2011, the station started complying with the mandate by using the graphics and music packages used by other CBS O&O stations. [citation needed]

History

WCCO-TV's roots actually originate with another radio station, WRHM, which took to the air in 1924. In 1934, two newspapers—the Minneapolis Tribune and the Saint Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch—formed a joint venture named "Twin Cities Newspapers," which purchased the radio station and changed its call letters to WTCN. WTCN-TV went on the air on July 1, 1949 as Minnesota's second television station, broadcasting from the Radio City Theater on 50 South 9th Street in downtown Minneapolis.

When Twin Cities Newspapers sold all its radio holdings (including WTCN Radio) in 1952, it created an opportunity to purchase WCCO radio (AM 830 and FM 102.9, now WLTE) and merge the two companies into Midwest Radio and Television, Inc. The new company changed Channel 4's call letters to match its new radio sisters. The WTCN call letters would later be picked up by what is now KARE.

Channel 4 has been the market's only station to never change its affiliation. Partly because of this stability, WCCO-TV is one of CBS' best-performing affiliates.

The WCCO building in downtown Minneapolis

In 1954, a live CBS broadcast from the Foshay Tower provided a view of an early-morning solar eclipse, the first time such an event had been televised nationally. In 1955, a mobile unit was formed, using a van dubbed the "Blue Goose" which would be used for more than a decade.

WCCO-TV participated in the first transatlantic television broadcast via the Telstar satellite on July 23, 1962 when a mobile crew provided video of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. This video was broadcast across the three major networks of the time: CBS, ABC, and NBC.

Rival KSTP-TV led the news ratings competition with WCCO until 1968, when Channel 4 debuted a new, chattier format called "The Scene at 6" and "The Scene Tonight" (10 p.m.) Conceived by news director Joe Bartelme and consultants McHugh & Hoffman, the "Scene" format propelled WCCO into a news ratings lead that would last until the mid-70s, when channel 5 firmly established its Eyewitness News format along with new anchors.[1] After KSTP self-destructed in the early 80s, WCCO took the lead again before battling a resurgent Channel 11 (WTCN/WUSA/KARE) in the middle of the decade.

Since the May 2006 ratings period, WCCO's newscasts have claimed the top spot in total household ratings for most news programs. The exception has been the mornings, where KARE still leads all local competitors. In main demographic groups, WCCO usually comes in second place. May 2009 showed a third place finish behind KSTP at 5:00 p.m.[2]

Under Bartelme's guidance, WCCO became a kind of farm team for CBS News; CBS eventually hired more than a dozen WCCO reporters, including Phil Jones, Bob McNamara, Jerry Bowen, Susan Spencer, and Don Kladstrup. A handful more signed on with other networks, including Bill Stewart (who was killed while covering fighting in Nicaragua for ABC).

WCCO's studio was renovated in 1956, but as the station grew over the next three decades, the space eventually became too small. In 1983, the station moved to a new studio building on the south end of Nicollet Mall at 90 South 11th Street. Channel 4 is the only area TV station broadcasting from downtown Minneapolis today.

In 1977, WCCO-TV unveiled the "Circle 4" logo. At the time of the unveiling, the "4" was colored blue and was placed inside a yellow circle. By the 1980s, a blue circle encompassed a white "4". The circle changed its color to red in the 1990s.

In 1987, WCCO bought KCMT, channel 7 in Alexandria, and its satellite KNMT, channel 12 in Walker. KCMT signed on in 1958 and had been the only full-power VHF station in central Minnesota. KNMT signed on in 1964 as a satellite of KCMT in northern Minnesota, serving Bemidji and Brainerd. KCMT and KNMT were renamed KCCO and KCCW, respectively, and began carrying WCCO programming with the exception of brief news inserts produced in Alexandria and placed within WCCO's newscasts, local commercials, and a small number of other local interest programs. KCCO/KCCW's local operations were progressively cut back until 2002, when WCCO discontinued the local news segments and shut down the KCCO studio in Alexandria. In its place, WCCO opened local news bureaus in both Brainerd and St. Cloud, but these too were shut down after a few years. Today, WCCO identifies itself on-air as "Minneapolis-St. Paul/Alexandria/Walker," and both KCCO and KCCW are full-time satellites of WCCO, airing the same programming and commercials as their parent station.

WCCO was purchased by CBS in 1992; it had been a minority owner of the station for many years. It does not follow the CBS Mandate; it is branded as WCCO 4 rather than CBS4. Other CBS O&Os not to follow this mandate are KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh (branded by its call letters), WWJ-TV in Detroit (branded by its call letters), WJZ-TV in Baltimore (branded WJZ 13), and WBZ-TV in Boston (branded as simply WBZ).

WCCO experimented with cable in the 1980s. Known initially as WCCO II or 'CCO cable, it was a way to transmit programs that wouldn't ordinarily make it onto the over-the-air frequency. During this time, WCCO II aired local forecasts when not airing sports or other programming. This later morphed into the Midwest Sports Channel (MSC), which operated for several years. Following Viacom's purchase of CBS, MSC was sold to News Corporation and became FSN North.

WCCO also operated a local weather channel on cable systems in the Twin Cities area. Unlike The Weather Channel, WCCO Weather Channel did not have any on-camera personalities and instead consisted of computer graphics with voice-over provided by WCCO-TV's meteorologists. This programming ran in a loop until updates were made available. Ads on this channel were delivered in this way as well (voice-over consisted of radio-formatted advertising). During severe weather occurrences, the channel would interrupt the recorded voice-over with live weather bulletins provided by WCCO 830 AM. Twin Cities PBS member station KTCI-TV airs weather info in a similar way but with the following differences:

  • no advertising
  • audio is provided by NOAA Weather Radio KEC65
  • digital multicast on channel 2.4 (originally shared airtime with PBS during the daytime and late night hours)

A later experiment in 1995, this time in the field of evening newscasts, also proved to be interesting. WCCO partnered with KLGT (channel 23, later KMWB and now WUCW) and fed a second news show to that station. This was known as "News of Your Choice", where the news anchors would periodically describe the upcoming items on each channel. This allowed viewers to decide which stories they wanted to see. Multiple factors contributed to the shutdown of the experiment after about one year.

An ice storm on April 6, 1997, caused the 2,060-ft KXJB-TV mast near Galesburg, North Dakota to collapse. As a result, several cable systems in eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota were unable to receive CBS programming. Some cable systems temporarily or permanently replaced KXJB with WCCO, KELO-TV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, or KXMB-TV from Bismarck, North Dakota.

On about June 29, 2006, WCCO introduced "The Plaza Studio", a renovation to its existing studio, on South 11th Street facing Marquette Avenue, across from Orchestra Hall. On about April 25, 2009, WCCO launched local news in widescreen standard definition. On May 30, 2009, WCCO launched local news in High Definition. Beginning with its 5:00 p.m. evening newscast, it became the third station in Minneapolis to switch to HD, after KARE and KMSP.

On June 6, 2011, WCCO became the latest CBS O&O station to switch a new graphics package. The change mirrors the packages seen on WCBS and KCBS, whose openings involve a spinning glass CBS eye, and the station ID in the center, with video of Minneapolis. The color scheme is now a dark blue with the glass CBS eye featured prominently. WCCO is also using "The Enforcer" music package, the basic theme of which has been used on many of CBS's O&O stations since the mid-1970s, when it was introduced by WBBM-TV.

Previous Logos

Satellite stations and translators

WCCO-TV's transmitter is located at the Telefarm paired tower installation in Shoreview also used by KSTP-TV, KARE and WUCW. The market's southern and western portions gets WCCO from three low-power translators, all privately owned:

WCCO also operate these satellite stations outside of the Twin Cities area.

Station City of license Channels First air date Former callsigns ERP
(Digital) 		HAAT
(Digital) 		Facility ID Transmitter Coordinates
KCCO-TV Alexandria Digital: 7 (VHF)
Virtual: 7 (PSIP) 		October 8, 1958 KCMT (1958–1987) 29 kW 339.6 m 9632 45°41′10″N 95°8′3″W / 45.68611°N 95.13417°W / 45.68611; -95.13417 (KCCO-TV)
KCCW-TV Walker
(Bemidji/Brainerd) 		Digital: 12 (VHF)
Virtual: 12 (PSIP) 		January 1, 1964 KNMT (1964–1987) 59 kW 286.4 m 9640 46°56′5″N 94°27′19″W / 46.93472°N 94.45528°W / 46.93472; -94.45528 (KCCW-TV)

Note: Both of these stations were affiliated with NBC (primary) and ABC (secondary) from their sign-on dates until the summer of 1982, when they switched to CBS.[3] Both stations were acquired by WCCO in 1987.

Out-of-market carriage

WCCO-TV, (along with KARE) is also carried on most cable systems in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario. The stations do not make any attempt to cater to this audience, other than their inclusion on regional weather maps.

Programming

Channel 4 was one of the few stations to broadcast Jeopardy! in the morning (it aired at 9:30 AM, leading into The Price is Right), but the show now airs at 4:30 PM on Channel 11 (though Wheel of Fortune can still be seen at 6:30 PM on Channel 4).

Notable on-air staff

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

  • TeleNews (1949-1952)
  • Closeups In The News (1952-1964)
  • The Big News (1964-1968)
  • The Scene at Six/The Scene Tonight (1968-1973)
  • TV-4 News (1973-1977)
  • NewsWatch 4/NightWatch 4 (1977-1979)
  • WCCO News (1979-1993 and 2003-2011)
  • 4 News (1993-1996)
  • WCCO 4 News (1996-2003 and 2011-present)

News team

Current on-air staff

Anchors

WCCO Weather Team

WCCO Sports

  • Mark Rosen - Sports Director; Monday-Thursdays at 5, 6 and 10 p.m., Sundays at 10 p.m. (and host of Rosen's Sports Sunday)
  • Mike Max - Friday-Saturdays at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. and Sundays at 5:30 p.m.

Reporters

Former on-air staff

Notable alumni

Many WCCO-TV on-air talent went on to the networks:

Digital television

As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, WCCO-TV shut down its analog transmitter at 11:59 p.m. on June 12, 2009, and began a 30-day "analog nightlight" operation, and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 32. Digital television receivers display WCCO-TV's virtual channel as 4 through the use of PSIP. On the same day WCCO's full-power satellites moved their digital broadcasts back to their former analog frequencies. WCCO-TV's analog channel 4 was then looping, in English and Spanish, a nationally-produced infomercial-length public service announcement with instructions on how to convert to digital and also aired emergency news and weather alerts until it was shut off for good on July 12.

External links

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.studioz7.com//TomRyther.shtml
  2. ^ http://newsblaze.com/story/2009052113384100004.mwir/topstory.html
  3. ^ Minnesota State Edition
  4. ^ "WCCO Anchor Bill Carlson Dies At Age 73". 2008-02-29. Archived from the original on 2008-03-03. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  5. ^ Oslund, John J. (1997). "Ruling a Prizewinner Unfair". Retrieved 2007-12-11.
  6. ^ http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/kaye.randi.html

References

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